Procrastinating, Kingdom Saving, and all other forms of Geekdom

Dead Set Part 24

Christian and DS looked for their targets for the entire night, with no luck. They went to Father Michaels hideout, but found nothing there either. Finally, completely exhausted, DS demanded that they rest. The eternal agreed. DS wasn’t about to go to sleep without getting some answers first. “Who was that guy last night? And how exactly did Gabriel come back from the dead? What the hell is going on here?”

Christian shook his head. It couldn’t hurt to tell him, he thought. “Fine. His name is Shadow. He’s an eternal, like me. Gabriel was sent back from the afterlife by Death. As to what’s going on, I have no clue. But whatever it is, it’s not good for me.”

“Oh, great. So you’re just gonna take me down with you?”

“I could take you down now, jackass. I don’t need you for this. I just decided to give you a second chance.”

“How generous of you.”

“Don’t get smart with me, boy! I’m really not in the mood for your shit.”

“Fine. Let’s just get some sleep.”

“No. You sleep. I’ll stay awake in case they come back.”

“Whatever.”

DS fell asleep on the couch. Christian tried to stay awake, but fell victim to his fatigue.

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Across town, another pair waited in an unfamiliar place. While Gabriel seemed at ease, Father Michaels was raging through an internal struggle. Despite the radiance emanating from Death, the priest began to realize that he wasn’t God. He was being used, and, because of that, he had committed murder. God would never want him to kill, he came to realize. The priest lost himself in prayer, searching for answers, while Gabriel looked forward to killing DS.

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It was almost nightfall when Christian and DS awoke. They decided to head back to Christian’s place to go over the map again. As they walked in, DS remembered something. “Weren’t we just gonna ask Samantha where he was?”

“Damn. I forgot all about that.”

“Let’s go.”

“I don’t think so,” Gabriel shouted. “There’s no need for that, since I stand right here.”

“Where’s the priest,” Christian asked.

“Right behind me.”

Indeed, Father Michaels was behind Christian’s son. There was a look upon the priest’s face that told the eternal all he needed to know. The priest didn’t want to do this.

“Leave the priest alone,” he whispered to DS.

Before DS could respond, Gabriel rushed at Christian. Christian easily defended himself from Gabriel’s attacks and wondered why he had bothered to do them in the first place. Then, he saw the plan. Father Michaels leveled the crossbow at DS. He shouted a warning to DS, but he didn’t hear it. The assassin was starting to use his power on Gabriel, leaving Father Michaels with an open shot. All he had to do was pull the trigger. He couldn’t do it, though. At this moment, all he wanted was to be far away from this place. He turned to leave, but found himself flying across the room instead. Death had arrived.

“Weak, pathetic fool,” Death spat at the priest.

Upon seeing Death enter, Christian knew he had to be done with Gabriel quickly. Gabriel couldn’t hope to block any of his father’s skilled strikes, so he took them, not feeling any pain. Hoping that Death would soon come to help him in his fight, Gabriel continued to take the beating. This is taking too long, Christian thought. With two quick kicks, he broke both of Gabriel’s knees, leaving him immobile.

“I don’t care what he does to you, DS. I just want him to suffer. If I have to wait until he kills you, then so be it.”

DS backed away, heading right towards Gabriel. The undead man couldn’t believe his luck. He pulled out his gun, but dropped it when he was blinded by an explosive burst of light. None of the others could see in the blinding light, but it was only a minor irritant to the two eternals. A being of pure radiance stood before them. He motioned for the eternals to follow him. “You have been summoned,” he said.

Both of them resisted the urge to go. Their attempts were futile. They were sucked into a vortex. The ride was unpleasant, but did not last very long. Finding himself dropped into a chair, Christian looked around. All five eternals: Light, Shadow, Death, Gray, and himself, were present. Gray, who only spoke during these meetings, began the conversation. “Now that all of us are here, let us begin.”

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DS heard screaming, but still hadn’t recovered his vision to see who it was. Rubbing his eyes, he gained enough of it back to see that Gabriel was making the noise. Slowly, every piece of Gabriel tore away from his body and disappeared. Whatever force was holding him together was gone. The assassin wanted to turn away from the gruesome sight, but found that he couldn’t. He kept watching until the man was no more. Gabriel was finally dead.